Universe S: Black Adam Strikes Back!
by Cyn Finnegan
Summary: Black Adam has returned, but why? And what does he want with Billy Batson? Massive rewrite. Had it removed from the "ESLO" Group at Yahoo because of problems with the mods. UPDATED AND COMPLETE!
1. Chapter One

**The Marvel Family: Black Adam Strikes Back**

By Cynthia Finnegan

Captain Marvel & related characters © 2009 DC Comics, Inc. Used without permission and not for profit.

**Chapter**** One**

It was a chilly, late-February afternoon as Billy Batson walked from WHIZ-TV to meet his twin sister, Mary, and their friend Freddy Freeman at a small neighborhood diner for lunch. And after a week of battling a bad case of the flu, it did the teen good just to get out. Though Spring was rapidly approaching, the air was still cold enough for Billy to see his breath as he exhaled, and it irritate his lungs enough to make him cough when he breathed in.

It had been a busy few months for the boy broadcaster. First, there was the Marvel Family and Kid Eternity's fight with Ibac, Sabbac, Darkling and Master Man. Then that battle with Mary's adopted father, whom a demon had transformed into a monster to fight the Marvel Family. Then there was Chain Lightning, who had ambushed the kids and Mr. Morris and caused the media mogul's car to crash. Finally, the flu bugs which struck Freddy first, Mary a few days later, and then Billy himself a couple of days after that. Mary and Freddy gotten better quickly, but this microbe seemed to be holding on to Billy's system with all the tenacity of a pit bull.

The trio all had the same symptoms: nausea, headaches, joint pain (which was especially hard on poor Freddy), chills and a fever. Freddy's recovery had been the quickest because he let his temperature rise until he nearly collapsed, basically letting the virus burn itself out. It worked, but he'd worried his landlady, Mrs. Wagner, greatly. And Mary had her foster-mother to cosset her until she hadn't so much as a shiver. But Billy, being a bit of a workaholic, went back to work before he made a full recovery, and now his body seemed to be getting even with him for it, because he had started shivering by the time he reached the diner.

Billy noticed Mary and Freddy waving to him from the booth as he removed his overcoat and scarf, hung them on the rack, then stuffed his gloves into one of the pockets. The pair had already ordered their lunches, and Mary scooted herself and her soup over so she could make room for her twin brother and sit a little closer to Freddy. The sight and smell of food was causing Billy to feel queasy, so he was looking a little bit green by the time he reached their table.

Anyone looking at the trio would see three ordinary fourteen-year-olds, but in reality, they were much older. Unless the casual observer was over the age of fifty, no one would believe that the teens had actually been born in the early 1930's, or that the reason they were still so young was that they had spent many years trapped in suspended animation.

"Billy, are you all right?" Freddy asked, concerned. "You look awful."

"Guess I still have a bit of the flu," Billy replied, rubbing his temples. "I can't seem to shake it."

"Here, allow me," Mary said as she put her hand on Billy's cheek. "Hmm… you _do_ feel a little warm, Billy. I think you're right; you _might_ be having a relapse."

Before Billy could comment, the waitress serving their table came over with a glass of ginger ale which had a pale, yellowish powder floating in it. She set it and a menu in front of the boy reporter, then pulled an order pad and a pen out of her apron and readied herself to take his order.

"I saw you come in," she remarked as she set the glass down. "There's some extra ginger in that soda. It's an home remedy for sick stomachs. Had the same bug two weeks ago and the only things I could keep down were that and applesauce. You wouldn't want some applesauce with that, would you?"

"No, this is fine for right now. Thank you," Billy said, then took a sip of the soda. She was right; it did settle his stomach. Not enough to eat a huge meal, but it was sufficient to watch his twin sister and best friend eat without feeling nauseous.

"Okay. If you kids need anything else, just holler. My name's Diana."

"Thanks, Diana," Mary replied. She then thought, _I'm going to give that lady a nice, big tip._

* * *

Meanwhile, two miles above and several hundred miles away from New York City, a black and gold clad figure returned to the world he had been born on five millennia ago. He cursed that little crystal-spinning demon for keeping him trapped for so many months, and he burned for revenge against not only it, but his three foes as well.

Neither knowing nor caring where on Earth he was, or even which Earth he was on, the black-garbed man flew eastward. He calculated that, with the swiftness of Anpu, he'd arrive at his destination in ten to fifteen seconds at the most. And then, he would deal with any so-called "heroes" as he saw fit, especially if those heroes were the Marvel Family. He grinned savagely at that thought.

Black Adam was back.

* * *

Back at the diner, Billy watched as Mary and Freddy ate their lunches, his own stomach still too queasy to keep much more than some chicken broth and the odd bite of lightly buttered toast down. Breathing was getting difficult, too; it felt as though someone had put a band vice around his ribcage and slowly began tightening it, and coughing didn't help, either. If anything, it just seemed to make matters worse.

After another minute, he gave up eating altogether, but as he watched his twin sister and best pal eating and talking, he noticed a thick envelope set down by Freddy's cup of coffee. The letterhead on it was from a local private school that had an arts-intensive college prep program. Apparently, the old couple who tried to adopt Freddy during the Second World War had left him enough to manage his expenses, meager though they were.

"You got accepted?" Billy asked.

"Not yet," Freddy replied nonchalantly between bites of his sandwich. "That's just more paperwork to be filled out. Scheduling, what I have to do to keep my scholarship, and "legal guardian" stuff. Not that I really **have** a legal guardian, unless you count Mrs. Wagner as one."

"Rat!" Mary teased, playfully slapping Freddy's arm. "Why didn't you tell me you're going to Binder Prep?"

"Because it's not final yet. Anyway, even if I am accepted, I won't be starting 'til August. Shoot, school's not out 'til June, so I'm in no big hurry."

"So what do you need to do to keep the scholarship?"

"Keep my grades above a "C" level, which won't be **that** hard, turn in all my homework on time, keep my nose clean. You know, the usual crap."

"At least you'll be on your way to earning a degree," Billy said sourly, then took another sip of his soda.

"Billy, you _have_ a degree. In Journalism," Freddy retorted sagely.

"An _honorary_ one, Freddy. I didn't go to school and _earn_ it; they just gave it to me, and it still feels like a cheat."

"Brother-mine, what are you _babbling_ about?" Mary chimed in, growing impatient with her twin. "Honorary or not, you _earned_ that degree a dozen times over by … by busting your hump for how long?"

" 'Busting my ...' _what?_ Sis, where on Earth did you hear _that_ one?"

She wasn't about to tell her brother that she first heard that term when Mr. Scarlet's teenaged partner, Pinky, asked her out on a date recently. After politely refusing his offer, he stated jokingly, "if I'd known I'd be busting my hump up here just for a rejection, I wouldn't have bothered!". Instead, Mary simply smiled sweetly and said, "I get around."

"I'll just bet," Freddy commented with a grin, to which Mary stuck her tongue out at him. Of course, he knew how she came by that comment, he'd been there when it was made, but he wasn't going to snitch on her.

Mary and Freddy finished their meals in fairly short order, then Mary pulled a twenty out of her wallet and slipped it under the plate her soup bowl sat on, wishing that she could see the blonde waitress' expression when she saw her tip. She then took the receipt to the front counter and paid the bill while the boys got their coats. After Mary put her own coat on, the trio walked out of the diner and headed towards WHIZ-TV.

* * *

At that moment, Black Adam appeared, hovering over the city. When he sighted one familiar landmark, the WHIZ-TV building, he knew that he was on his Earth. The World's Mightiest Villain swooped down for a closer look, and as the approached a diner near the station, he recognized the three teenagers exiting the restaurant and streaked towards them as they crossed the street.

Billy saw the black and gold streak above them out of the corner of his eye. In an instant, he grabbed both Freddy and Mary's arms and pulled them both out of danger, back-pedaling as fast as he could. The black streak smashed into the tarmac where the trio stood mere moments ago, leaving a smoking, six-foot wide crater in the middle of the street. The tremor caused by the collision was powerful enough to knock the teens off their feet.

"Billy, how did you ... ?" Freddy asked, gaping at the hole in the pavement.

"Saw … him coming," Billy gasped in response, which elicited a worried look from Mary. Billy wasn't just out of breath; he was wheezing like an old fireplace bellows, causing her to think that he was a lot sicker than she first thought; that this wasn't just a relapse of his flu, but the onset of pneumonia.

She looked around to make sure there was no one nearby. Conveniently, at that moment, the crowd that had gathered to see what was going on were looking at the gaping hole in the street, not at them.

"Okay, guys," Mary said, gathering her wits, "let's say our words before whoever it is reaches street level again …"

"_**SHAZAM!**_" She and Billy shouted in unison, their bodies automatically taking the stance of well-trained warrirors.

"_**CAPTAIN MARVEL!**_" Freddy yelled a split-second later. In response, bolts of magic lightning struck each of the three teens, transforming them into their other forms of Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior as the black and gold clad form flew back up to the street.

"_**Black Adam!**_" Captain Marvel exclaimed in shock.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
_Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic: this story is an out-of-continuity parody based on the SHAZAM! Comics written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Don Newton. It is neither steeped in nor is it connected with the current continuity of DC Comics. DC's current continuity lacks imagination. And guts. Hey, I offered DC good money for the Fawcett heroes, but they seem to be damned and determined to ruin them beyond redemption.  
_

_I __**do not**__ claim any rights to the Marvel Family or the characters associated with them. Those rights belong to DC Comics (damn it all). I offer my thanks to C.C. Beck, Bill Parker, Otto Binder, Mac Raboy and Marc Swayze for creating such "marvelous" characters for me to terrorize._


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Mere moments ago, Billy Batson, his twin sister Mary and their friend, Freddy Freeman, were knocked off their collective feet by a black and gold blur colliding with the street. They said their magic words, transforming themselves into the heroic Marvel Family, then each took a fighter's stance, readying themselves for whomever this foe might be.

"_**Black Adam!**_" Captain Marvel exclaimed in shock. The last the Marvels had heard of him, he was trapped on in the lower bowels of Tartarus, encased in a crystalline cocoon.

"Pity," Adam said, a look of maniacal glee on his harsh, hawkish face. "I'd hoped you wouldn't have had the chance to say the old fool's name, and you disappointed me. I'd so wished to kill your mortal forms with my bare hands, but this will be much more satisfying."

"Oh, as _if_, you fiend," Mary rejoined, rolling here blue eyes skyward.

"What happened to you in Hell?" Junior asked mockingly. "Did you wear out your welcome, or did the Chamber of Commerce there decide you were just too ugly to be stuck as a statue?"

"You'll _pay_ for that insult, boy…!" Adam growled as he tackled the World's Mightiest Boy, trying to wrap his fingers around the boy's throat in a vain attempt to throttle him, but the Captain stopped the villain by spinning him around and belting him skyward.

"What do you say we take this fight where civilians won't get hurt?" the World's Mightiest Mortal shot back as he followed the black-clad villain.

"I'd say how typically noble of you to take our battle away from those innocent sheep you protect, that I _loathe nobility, and that **I HATE YOU**!_" Adam exclaimed as he used his momentum to twist around and fly into Captain Marvel's back, punching him in the kidneys.

The red-clad hero recoiled from the blow, not from pain, but from surprise. With both of them being invulnerable, nothing Adam did would actually harm Captain Marvel, but nothing Cap did could harm Black Adam, either. Recovering quickly, the World's Mightiest Man delivered an uppercut of such force that it would have killed a normal human, but all it did was snap Adam's teeth together with a loud clack.

A moment later, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior joined in the scrap, Junior with a shoulder check to Adam's solar plexus and Mary with both small fists to their foe's mouth. Shaking off Mary's double punch, he grabbed Junior's cape and used it to hurl the World's Mightiest Boy away from the battle and towards Amalgamated Tower, where WHIZ-TV was located. The boy in blue managed to slow himself down a split-second before he could crash through the roof into Mr. Morris' office, and reversed his trajectory so he's wind up back in the fight.

_Why's Adam so focused on Cap?_ Mary thought, seeing Adam fly directly into her big brother's back again, fists first. _Ever since he's come back, he's been obsessing on me like a bad case of Fatal Attraction. Ugh, now_ there's_ a _really_ creepy thought, especially since I'm only fourteen._

"Hey! A sucker-punch in the kidneys is strictly _against_ the Marquis of Queensbury rules, _you ugly creep!_" Mary shouted as she gave the ancient Egyptian villain a wicked kick to the jaw. In retaliation for the girl's blow, Black Adam grabbed Mary by her ankle, spun her around several hundred times at super-speed, and flung her directly at the rapidly-approaching Captain Marvel Junior, sending the youthful pair crashing into each other.

"HEY!" went Mary as her shoulders hit Junior's stomach.

"WHOOULLFF!" went Junior as Mary's shoulders hit him in the stomach.

"Are you okay?" Mary asked, the tone of her voice betraying her concern.

"Yeah, he just ... took me by surprise ... and knocked the wind out of me," Junior gasped in reply, noting the tone in her voice. He then looked around and yelped, "Holy Moley! Where did they go? We **lost** them!"

"We'll split up and search for them. I'll head towards the river, and you look Downtown, okay?"

"Okay. Holler if you spot them!"

"Don't worry, I will."

With that, the mighty teens separated to find their friend and brother.

* * *

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel's fight with Black Adam went from Midtown to the banks of the Hudson River in a matter of moments. Thanks to Atlas's Stamina, the World's Mightiest Man was far from tired, but the nonstop battle was getting monotonous, and they somehow managed to lose Mary and Junior a while ago. To top things off, Adam seemed to be herding the Captain towards the Hudson River, not to mention keeping him on the defensive by raining blow after blow on him.

But why? To what purpose?

_Nice going!_ Captain Marvel thought as the hours ... or was it only a few minutes? ... of fighting Black Adam began to blur together. _I let Adam lead me right to the river! How long have I been at this, anyway?_

After a moment, Captain Marvel's head began to buzz and feel fuzzy, like some outside force were trying to take control of him, just as Black Adam was trying to trap him in a sleeper hold. Trying to avoid Adam's grasp, Cap swung his right arm up and then back to connect with the villain's long, hawkish nose. The hero shook his head to clear it, then rounded on Adam, ready to retake the offensive and put him back in jail where he belonged.

"All right, Adam. I have **definitely** had enough of this malarkey. Why don't you just say the old wizard's name, change back into Teth-Adam, let the police take you back to jail and make our lives a whole lot easier?" he said, swinging a haymaker at Adam's pointed chin.

"And why don't **you** be silent, fool!" The villain retorted as he did the impossible; he dodged the oncoming blow with unnerving ease, and before Cap could regain his bearings enough to deliver another one, Adam snaked his hand out and grabbed the lower half of the hero's face in a vise-like grip.

"**MMMMPPPHH!**"

Adam's fingers dug into his foe's cheekbones and lower jaw, while the palm of his hand was pressed tightly over Cap's mouth to keep him quiet. Captain Marvel even tried opening his mouth to bite him, but Adam positioned his hand in such a way as to prevent the hero from moving his jaw at all. As the World's Mightiest Villain held his struggling enemy, he shot the World's Mightiest Mortal a look of venomous triumph. Adam knew he had the younger man at nonexistent mercy as he uttered a single magic word:

"_**SHAZAM!**_"

Adam watched as the magic lightning arced towards them. At the last possible instant, he twisted them both around so that the mystic bolt struck Captain Marvel, immediately changing him back into his mortal form of Billy Batson. Realizing that they were hovering only an inch or two above the Hudson, the look of shock on Billy's face was quickly replaced by terror as the black-clad villain began to plunge the teenager into the icy waters of the bay in an attempt to drown him.

"When you meet them, boy, give whatever gods you worship my "regards"," Adam said with a malicious grin as he pushed Billy under. Billy clawed at Adam's hand, trying to break loose of the painful grip that threatened to crush his jaw to dust. He was in for the fight of his life ... literally... against a foe every bit as powerful as his alter ego.

_It's no use!_ Billy thought, desperately clawing at the villain's fingers. _Adam's too powerful for me to free myself, and with his hand squeezing my mouth shut, I can't say Shazam and change back into Cap so I can kick his sorry butt!_

The realization that he was about to die had the opposite effect of what Adam had hoped for. Instead of meekly accepting his fate, Billy's survival instinct kicked into high gear. Adreneline flooded his system and he began to fight all the harder to stay alive. After several long minutes of panicked struggling, Adam's sadistic grin broadened as he saw the last of Billy's air finally bubble to the surface of the frigid bay, then felt the boy broadcaster's body go limp in his iron grasp.

"**BILLY!**" The young, feminine voice screamed in fury, causing the windows of several buildings to vibrate dangerously.

Mary had found them just in time to witness her twin brother's plight. Using a fraction of her great speed, the World's Mightiest Girl rocketed up and came right back down again, tucking herself into a cannonball position and striking Adam in the small of his back, then dove into the frigid water after her brother. Her swift actions forced Adam to lose his grip on Billy even as he himself wound up submerged. The World's Mightiest Villain rose to the surface, spitting out a mouthful of polluted water.

Hearing her outcry from across town, Captain Marvel Junior arrived on the scene as Mary dove in to find Billy. The slim, blue-garbed teenager snarled as his fists struck the villain full force, all of the strength of Hercules and the Power of Zeus backed by all-too-human rage. The World's Mightiest Boy was determined to beat old Shazam's name out of Black Adam, until, unbidden, something that Cap said to him shortly after giving a portion of his powers to a dying Freddy Freeman came back to haunt the young hero.

"_Feeling _angry_ about what Nazi did to you is healthy, Junior, but _rage_ is something you can't reason with. The only thing rage will get you is some poor innocent standing nearby needlessly killed, so put a lid on it!"_

With a visible effort, Captain Marvel Junior did just that. The sanity had returned to his deep blue eyes, and next set of blows the boy in blue delivered were more controlled. He pummeled Adam relentlessly until the villain said the word that the young man had been waiting for.

"**shazam,**" Adam finally said, defeated. In response to the key word, another bolt of magic lightning struck, changing the former Champion of Egypt back into ordinary Teth-Adam. Junior punched him one more time, a love-pat compared to the others, knocked him out and carried him off to jail.

_Strange,_ The World's Mightiest Boy thought as he headed for the new Super-maximum security prison with his unconscious burden, _that was almost_ too _easy. Something about this stinks to high heaven … but what?_

Meanwhile, using a portion of the fleetness of Zephyrus, Mary swam after Billy, who was trapped by the deadly, fast-moving current. She caught up to him, hooking the collar of his overcoat in two fingers, but the garment was slippery and she lost her tentative hold on him. She found him again a few seconds later, this time wrapping one of her slender, strong arms around her twin brother's waist and shot out of the water like a missile. Mary flew Billy to a nearby dock, where she set him down and checked for any vital signs. No pulse, no respiration, no sign of life at all.

Fighting the urge to panic, the World's Mightiest Girl tore her brother's sweater, white shirt and the skinny black silk tie that Cissie had given him for Christmas to shreds. She then tilted his head back, pinched his nose closed and began performing CPR, praying that the water had been cold enough to keep his brain alive.

"Come on, Billy, _please_ breathe," Mary said to her lifeless brother as she started chest compressions. "Don't you _dare_ leave us like this!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
_Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic: this story is an out-of-continuity parody based on the SHAZAM! Comics written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Don Newton. It is neither steeped in nor is it connected with the current continuity of DC Comics. DC's current continuity lacks imagination. And guts. I offered to buy them from DC, but they're damned and determined to destroy these great characters.  
_

_I __**do not**__ claim any rights to the Marvel Family or the characters associated with them. Those rights belong to DC Comics (damn it all). I offer my thanks to C.C. Beck, Bill Parker, Otto Binder, Mac Raboy and Marc Swayze for creating such "marvelous" characters for me to terrorize._


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

"Come on, Billy, _please_ breathe," Mary said to her lifeless brother as she started chest compressions. "Don't you _dare_ leave us like this!"

"How is he?" Junior asked as he landed near his friends. The World's Mightiest Boy had seen many expressions cross his lovely partner's face, but never the look of utter, hopeless despair that it now held.

"He's not breathing and I can't get a pulse. Junior, he's …"

"No way! He's NOT dead yet! We're just gonna have to try something else! Remember Dr. Ralston...?"

The pair looked at each other; the secret knowledge each of the Marvels possessed gave both of them the same idea at the same time. It was dicey, but anything that could save Billy's life would be worth the risk.

"Of course!" Mary exclaimed, hope rekindling within her. "Pa Potter had contracted the Pinhead Plague, so we took him and Ma to Cambodia to see him ... Ralston was attacked by a water buffalo ... his heart had stopped, and _the three of us used our magic lightning to restart it!_"

Before Mary could say "Shazam!", Junior said "Captain Marvel!", changing himself back into Freddy Freeman.

"It's strange," Mary said, "doctors now use electricity to shock a heart back to beating …"

"And we're going to do the same thing to Billy with our lightning," Freddy finished. "After I say my words and change back into Junior, we'll both carry him to the nearest emergency room."

The two teens placed their hands on Billy's chest, on either side of his heart, then shouted their magic words almost simultaneously. The lightning that followed lanced into Mary Marvel, instantly changing her back into Mary Batson, through Billy's chest, and then into Freddy, triggering his transformation back to Captain Marvel Junior. The lightning's power not only revived the boy broadcaster's heart, but it also warmed his body the few critical degrees he needed to start breathing on his own again.

Rolling onto his side, Billy took a rasping gasp of air and began coughing weakly to expel the water and a brackish, almost black discharge from his lungs. Billy's face was now red from the efforts of coughing and getting air into his oxygen-starved lungs, and his breathing sounds were ragged intakes of air.

A moment later, a tearful Mary again cried out her magic word, changing back into the World's Mightiest Girl. Junior held Billy in one arm, wrapped the other around Mary's shoulders and the pair took to the sky with the boy reporter between them, heading for the hospital.

* * *

An hour later, Mary and Freddy were waiting for any news on Billy's condition. Uncle Dudley, whom Freddy had called, soon joined them. Mary had been on the verge of tears since they arrived, and the longer they waited, the closer she got to a full-blown crying jag. Freddy sat next to her, feeling just as helpless as she did, and put his arm around her. Mary took that as her cue to break down, and somehow, Freddy didn't seem to mind being her shoulder to cry on. They were interrupted when a bespectacled, sandy-haired man in scrubs and a lab jacket cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, Ms. Batson?" the emergency room doctor called to Mary. "I'm Sean O'Riordan, Billy's primary care physician."

"Yes?" Mary asked, wiping her eyes dry with her fingertips. "Is he all right?"

"I'm sorry, but no. Your brother is a very sick young man."

"How bad is his condition, Doc?" Freddy asked, his voice heavy with skepticism. Something was wrong, but he didn't want to voice his suspicions just yet.

"Are you a member of the family, young man?"

"Yes," Dudley placed his hand on Freddy's shoulder and answered for him. "We _all_ are. What's wrong with him?"

"I'm afraid that Ms. Batson was right about the pneumonia, sir. It might well have been a minor case this afternoon, but his fall into the bay has greatly exacerbated matters. The good news is that, given time, rest and medication, he'll be well enough to go home in a couple of weeks. He'll need outpatient care for a couple of weeks after that, but he'll make a full recovery."

Relieved, Mary then asked, "Can we see him?"

"Yes, you can, but only one at a time, and you'll have to wear masks, gloves, scrubs and gowns. Billy is very contagious and we don't want an epidemic on our hands."

As the doctor motioned Mary and Dudley to follow him, Freddy excused himself by saying that he needed to get back to work, but as he hugged his favorite girl and dropped a kiss on her forehead, he promised them both that he would visit later.

"I'll be here, keeping an eye on him," Mary replied with a tired smile, returning the embrace. Freddy then left the Intensive Care Unit, but with a heart deeply troubled by the events of that afternoon.

_Something's wide of the mark about this,_ Freddy thought as he headed back to his newsstand. _We all said our magic words and changed into the Marvel Family. Billy should've been _cured_ of that "slight case of pneumonia", but he_ wasn't. _In fact, he's _worse_ than he was at the diner. And there's_ no way _we should've beaten Black Adam_ that easily, _not without one of us_ tricking him _into saying old Shazam's name. Everything that's happened today's gone down twisted, and I'm going to find out how… and _why!

* * *

On the Abyssal Plain, a demon peers into the flames before him, watching his enemies, the corners of his thin lips curving into a malicious sneer as he spied on them. It was a pity that he couldn't read their thoughts, as well. No matter. The pawn was now in play, and no one was any the wiser. The spells the demon wove into his creation were already working, and the souls of the old wizard's "favorites" would soon be his for the taking.

"Perfect, simply perfect," he said, his voice thick with derision. "It all happened right under their noses and the fools never even noticed, did they?"

And bound spread-eagle to a stone framework, a familiar black-haired youth struggled against the cruel leathern bonds cruelly biting into the flesh of his wrists, the fire of anger burning in his bright blue eyes. He had already endured one brutal whipping from his captor with the promise of more to come, and was magically rendered unable to say the one word that would save his family and win him his freedom …

**Finis ...?**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
_Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic: this story is an out-of-continuity parody based on the SHAZAM! Comics written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Don Newton. It is neither steeped in nor is it connected with the current continuity of DC Comics. DC's current continuity lacks imagination. And guts. Hey, I offered DC money for them, but they're damned and determined to turn a great blessing into a curse.  
_

_I __**do not**__ claim any rights to the Marvel Family or the characters associated with them. Those rights belong to DC Comics (damn it all). I offer my thanks to C.C. Beck, Bill Parker, Otto Binder, Mac Raboy and Marc Swayze for creating such "marvelous" characters for me to terrorize._


End file.
